Do We Need to Redefine the Book?
Merriam-Webster Dictionary:
Book
a
: a set of written sheets of skin or paper or tablets of wood or ivory
b
: a set of written, printed, or blank sheets bound together between a front and back cover
noun
Cambridge English Dictionary:
Book
a written text that can be published in printed or electronic form:
Have you read any good books recently?
He has a new book out (= published).
She wrote a book on car maintenance.
a set of pages that have been fastened together inside a cover to be read or written in:
a hardback/paperback book
noun
Here is What Local Writers Had to Say on the Subject:
Mary Collins
Nonfiction
“When TV hit the social scene, everyone thought it would be the death of radio, but look at how we’ve just expanded the definition and reach of that audio form—to podcasts and beyond. The ‘book’ you can hold in your hand and that requires sustained attention will be with us because we need it, but variations on the form will keep happening and that’s okay. One does not have to mean the extinction of the other.”
Marcia DeSanctis
Travel & Essay
"Well, keep reading alive. I have not given that specific aspect of this issue much thought. I do know that I have felt relief at times that my kids grew up in a kind of pre-digital age. You can spend an hour and a half of your time on TikTok or Instagram, and that's time that you could be immersed in another world, beautiful writing. I think that we're not going to really be able to redefine the book, but I think we need to start thinking more. And a lot of people are thinking about the attention economy we live in. Prioritize reading. Maybe the reading world is not doing a great job of providing an alternative to all the quick, digestible hits that are out there on social media and on the internet and everything else. Maybe we just need to say that you don't have to read this book or that book, read a book that aligns with your interests."
Robert Dowling
Biography
"No. We need to be the keepers of the flame."
Lara Ehrlich
Fiction - Magical Realism
“With AI, we're seeing this question becoming really pressing . . . Is something written by a non-human that is book-like in every other way, right? Like it looks like a book, it has a story, it has characters. Is that a book?”
Ron Farina
Military Fiction & Nonfiction
“I certainly hope not!”
Janet Lawler
Children's Literature
“That's a good question. I guess on a basic human level, I, and as a children's author, I always think there's going to be a place for the book you pick up and turn the pages of. For children, the connection of parent and child or a caregiver sitting with a child and sharing this physical object that has pages that get turned, which is an activity. I mean, you can, you can do that with a tablet and have somebody push a button to turn a page, but it doesn't quite do the same. That said, I think the expansion of technology offers wonderful opportunities for books in virtual formats to expand children's access to stories, other cultures, and information. And maybe in a way that isn't as expensive as trying to get physical books that have been printed and produced into the hands of every child.”
Luanne Rice
Fiction & YA Fiction
"A book is a very general term—storytelling transcends format. Whether its prose, graphic novels, or short fiction, the essence lies in the narrative itself. It’s what’s between the covers that counts."
Julien Strong
Fiction & Poetry
“I don't think we need to redefine the book, because there's something special about bookness as it is currently understood, that ought to be preserved. There's a container around those experiences [books] that has a beginning and a middle and an end that is very different from the endlessness of doom scrolling.”